Puppets part 3: Writing the Script


In this lesson, students who have created their characters in the previous lesson are grouped into pairs to create an imaginative script. Students are asked to think about the feelings and motivations of their characters.

Materials:


Learning Targets:

  1. I can write a script for my puppet show

Engage:

Review the steps decided on in lesson one. To review, students will be invited to the board to re-arrange the steps towards creating a puppet show into the correct order.

Return the student's character sheets to them. Half should be marked with a red star, the other half with blue. Students will take a moment to review their character.

Access:

Review the role of the script in putting on a show.

Show the students an example script (made with the form below), and act it out briefly with another teacher or a student volunteer. Note that for simplicity, character's lines are color coded to indicate which character is speaking.

Analyze / Act:

Students gather into two lines, one with red stars and one with blue. To create a script, one student is selected from each line at random. Students announce their characters to the group, by greating one another.

example:
"Hello Lilly the Princess,"
"Hello Judy the Astronaut"

For the next line, the blue character feels sad. The creator of the blue character must decide why she feels sad. If the student cannot think of a reason, she may call on another student to get an idea, which she then announces by saying her line. Similarly, the red character must think of a way to make the blue character feel better, and may also rely on the class for ideas.

example:
"I feel sad because I don't have any friends to play with."
"I could make you feel better by sharing some candy with you"

After each script, students briefly applaud the performers.

As each pair of students acts through their script, a teacher or a student records their words on the worksheet.